Economic Census

The economic censuses are comprehensive and periodic canvasses of the nation's industrial & business activities. Taken by the Census Bureau every five years, the economic censuses provide a detailed statistical profile of a large segment of the national economy.

The early beginnings of America's industrial output were first measured in the 1810 Census of Manufactures, part of the Decennial Census. In 1954, an integrated census program was begun, which was then regularized in 1967 to be taken at 5 year intervals covering years ending in "2" and "7."

Check marks in the table below indicate the years for which the various components of the economic censuses were taken.

By clicking on the you will be taken to a page describing the publications for that year of that census component and the print holdings at the Columbia University Libraries.

A indicates years of economic census publication for which Columbia has no print holdings.

Clicking on any of the table headings will take you to a page which describes the overall scope and intent of that particular census series, as well as information about sources for updating data between censuses. Similarly, there are links to pages with information for each year that the economic censuses were conducted, 1972-2002.